National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) activists and supporters stage a rally in Lingkaran Abepura, Jayapura, Papua, on Monday. The rally was organized to mark the signing of the New York Agreement on Aug. 15, 1962, which decided that Papua would join the Republic of Indonesia. The KNPB has campaigned for self-determination and says the New York Agreement was not made by Papuans.(The Jakarta Post/Nethy Dharma Somba)

National Committee of West Papua (KNPB), an organization campaigning for the right to self-determination for the people of Papua and West Papua provinces, denied allegations by Papua Police that supporters rallying on Monday had committed vandalism.

KNPB head Victor Yeimo told The Jakarta Post Monday evening that the KNPB believed in fighting without violence.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw said Monday they arrested two people during the KNPB rally in Jayapura.

“Both were arrested because they committed [violence], blocking the streets with wood, burning tires in the middle of the streets and damaging street vendors’ goods,” said Waterpauw.

The police reported KNPB staged a rally, marching 15 kilometers from Perumnas Tiga to the Papuan Council. Security apparatuses blocked them and Waterpauw said when the police blocked them, rally participants started throwing rocks at the police, burned tires and blocked the streets.

“They have staged rallies that disturbed public order several times,” Waterpauw said.

KNPB supporters staged a rally to mark the New York Agreement signed on Aug. 15, 1962, which decided that Papua would join the Republic of Indonesia. They said the agreement was made not by Papuans themselves.

Veronica Koman, a Jakarta lawyer from Papua Itu Kita, a solidarity movement for Papuans, said the KNPB had denied that the two people arrested were among their supporters. She said she had received reports from her Papuan contacts that about 100 KNPB supporters were rounded up in a police truck in Jayapura. They were subjected to police violence on the truck and later released.

Victor accused the police of violence. “They shot at us in Waena [Jayapura],” he said. Victor said five people were injured by rubber bullets.

Waterpauw said the police had to fire warning shots into the air during the rallies.

New Zealanders take lot of pride in their national culture. And rightly so.

New Zealand is one of the few settler cultures lucky enough to have tangata whenua establish a treaty with it based on mutuality, reciprocity and respect. It’s a culture based on a strong sense of equality and "fair go", one that values humility and has that ethos of looking out for your neighbour.

But that doesn’t mean NZ always lives up to these values.

Just look at the ongoing Crown betrayals of te Tiriti, the endemic male violence, the deepening poverty and inequality and the Government’s inertia against grave crises we face today such as homelessness, housing, and runaway climate change.

But these values are a strong part of our history. They’re core to our culture.

The cultural history of strong women leaders and of being the first to give women the vote. Of young Pacific and pakeha people standing up against the dawn raids in the 1970s and 80s, against nuclear testing, and against apartheid in South Africa. Of leading the world in creating a welfare state that looked after the most vulnerable in society. And of political leaders in international arenas standing up for human rights.

West Papua’s on the western side of New Guinea, bordering Papua New Guinea. Its indigenous people aren’t Asians, they’re Melanesians – just like their cousins in PNG and just like me. However, they’re not independent like PNG. They were once occupied by the Dutch and for the last 54 years they’ve been occupied by Indonesia.

West Papuans have always wanted independence, but when the Dutch pulled out Indonesia saw a chance to occupy West Papua to grab all the mineral wealth and natural resources it has. And it’s got a lot: gold, copper, tin – you name it. It’s so rich I call it “The Africa of the South Pacific”. So, when the Dutch finally pulled out, Indonesia – backed by the United States – saw its chance to invade West Papua in 1961, annexing it by force. And it’s been occupying West Papua ever since.

West Papuans have lost most of their land and seen more than 500,000 people killed. Women have been routinely abused and raped. People’s houses are burnt by militias and land is being poisoned, stripped and destroyed by extractive mining and industrial agriculture with entire villages being displaced.

They’re being reduced to a minority population in their own land through Indonesian trans-migration. And they’re being routinely killed, thrown in jail, tortured and abused just for speaking out, resisting the occupation, and fighting for their independence. They can’t fly their independence flag and they can’t talk about independence for fear of reprisal.

I believe all these developments meet the definition of genocide. There is genocide going on next door. That alone should be enough for Kiwis to be concerned.

But there’s another reason. One we ignore at our peril.

NZ’s silence about West Papua isn’t just about how we’re privileging our economic relationship with Indonesia over the human and indigenous rights of West Papuans (NZ exports some $800 million to Indonesia every year and that figure’s expected to grow).

There’s a deeper moral issue here too as there’s an inseparable connection between how we deal with issues overseas and how we deal with issues in NZ.

If we tolerate injustice abroad, we’ll inevitably also undermine our own capacity to deal with injustice at home. It goes the other way too: if we tolerate injustices here, we’ll have less capacity to speak out against them over there.

Firstly, this means NZ’s silence over the genocide in West Papua is not unrelated to our collective inability to confront the ongoing realities of colonisation that Maori still experience here.

Secondly, if we don’t speak out about West Papua, one way or another it’ll undermine our ability to address the deepening social and ecological problems here.

These are problems like the corporate capture of mainstream media, increasing subordination of civil service to ministerial control, and the undermining of statutory bodies’ independence through threats of defunding.

The destruction of privacy through mass surveillance, passing a whole suite of acts post-9/11 that undermine the independence of the judiciary and breach the Bill of Rights, the long-standing corporate assault against unions, and the commodification of art and culture.

All of these are undermining the bulwarks of democracy in this country. All of which stem from the contradictions of colonisation here.

So speaking out about West Papua isn’t just an obligation we have to look out for our neighbours. It’s also a chance to save ourselves, save NZ’s liberal democracy, and to honour te Tiriti, which means to actually live up to those values that so many Kiwis hold dear.

* Pala Molisa is an accounting lecturer at Victoria University whose research focuses on how social practices such as accounting help to create the conditions for human rights atrocities and ecological crises. He is also a member of the Run It Straight Collective, which has released the short film, Run It Straight, on the crisis in West Papua.

AUGUST 15, 2016 1:57PM EDT Dispatches

Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has an opportunity this week to outline clear, unequivocal policies in support of human rights in his highly anticipated Independence Day speeches.

Jokowi will address the national parliament on Tuesday and follow up with an address at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday, August 17, Indonesia’s Independence Day. The speeches come at a time when an unambiguous signal from the government in support of universal human rights and freedoms is sorely needed.

Jokowi should use the speeches to express his support for the rights of Indonesia’s increasingly beleaguered lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, which has come under unprecedented attack in recent months from a government-led campaign. Jokowi has maintained silence amid a torrent of abuse that has included hateful rhetoric, discriminatory edicts, and the police use of unnecessary force against peaceful protesters. Last week, presidential spokesman Johan Budi responded to a Human Rights Watch report on these abuses by stating that there was “no room” for LGBT rights activism in Indonesia. Jokowi’s speeches should reject this discriminatory rhetoric and make clear that he will defend the rights of all Indonesians, including LGBT people.

Jokowi also needs to reaffirm that an official accountability process for past gross human rights abuses remains an important government priority. Those abuses included the government-orchestrated massacres of 1965-66 that resulted in up to one million deaths, and violations by government security forces in the restive provinces of Papua and West Papua. Jokowi had assigned his security minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, to oversee that process. But Jokowi’s move last month to replace Pandjaitan with former general Wiranto, who was indicted for crimes against humanity by a United Nations-sponsored tribunal, has fueled doubts about his government’s commitment to the accountability process.

Jokowi should demonstrate that despite Wiranto’s appointment – a slap in the face to Indonesians seeking accountability for past atrocities in Indonesia – his government remains committed to policies that support rather than undermine the rights of the Indonesian people.

4) I Didn’t Know About Our Ambassador’s Visit to Papua : Sogavare

15 August 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Manasseh Sogavere said he did not know if his ambassador to Indonesia recently visited Papua.

“Really? I don’t know. But it’s good though. I hope there’s a progress in the settlement of human rights cases,” said Sogavare, who’s also the Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Groups (MSG), told Jubi in Honiara.

In May, ambassador Salana Kalu visited Papua at the invitation of at the time Coordinating Minister of Politic, Legal and Security Luhut Pandjaitan.

The minister also invited Kalu along with the ambassadors of Fiji and Papua New Guinea to meet at his office to discuss the settlement of human rights cases in Papua.

According to the minister, his invitation was to show to the international community that Indonesia is serious about solving human rights cases.

Sogavare said he had sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to discuss human rights issues in Papua but Joko had not yet responded.

“We have sent the letter to Jokowi. At first, it was to propose Indonesia and ULMWP to sit together to discuss about Papua issue in the MSG because now both are the associate member and observer. Secondly, to let me as the Chairman of the MSG to be able to talk with the President Indonesia for addressing the Papua issue together. But we don’t have any response so far,” said Sogavare. (*/rom)

Jayapura, Jubi – A German-educated painter and sculptor, Teguh Ostenrik, is one of the best Indonesian fine artists. His paintings and sculptures have been bought by many collectors as well as reviewed by art curators from Indonesia and abroad.

But who knows if he had opinion about Papua and Papua indigenous people who occupied the western island of the island that used to known as Nueva Guinea. At his house that also used as studio, located at Cilandak Barat area, there’s a design of his three statues, which currently decorated the St. Yohannes Maria Vianney Church in Cilangkap. One of those statues is Corpus Christi statue, which he admitted to be inspired from Papuan.

“Jesus that I made is Jesus from Papua,” Teguh, who graduated from Fine Arts Hochschule der Kuenste, Berlin, Germany, told Tempo a year ago.

He ignored the typical of Jesus’ face that is common for people at the worldwide in making the statue of Corpus Christi. For him, Jesus shouldn’t necessary have nosed, sharp-chinned, curly hair and straight beard. To fight this idea, he made model from the face of Papuan.

The height of the phenomenal Jesus statue is up to 5.30 meters. The statue is using the basic material consisted of a ton of iron waste.

“It’s a figure of emancipator. Because Papuan has too long been colonialized by Java,” he explained to rumah123.com on last week. He added one of intimidations against Papuans is because of their darker skin. “While Papuans are more polite,” he said.

He also sure that Papuans are more civilized than what have been thought negatively by most of people.

“A football game played by Papuans is the real example,” he said. He explained, in the football game played by Papuans, the score was always the same. He heard this from his friend, a pastor in Papua. “They used to live together in peace. Even playing football they always try to get the equal score,” he said. (*)

Jayapura Jubi – Six high school students from Papua New Guinea are currently studying at SMAN 3 Jayapura.

The school’s principal, Anton Joko Martono, said all arrangements related to visa, school registration and dormitory of the students managed by the Government of Papua New Guinea.

“There are three 10th grade student, two 11th grade student and one 12th grade student who finally registered to study in here,” said Anton on last week. He said the six students are currently learning Bahasa Indonesia, while the Papuan students are attempting to learn English for communication.

“There are benefits enjoyed by both sides. It was reflected from the last two weeks,” he said.

The students from PNG are obliged to pursue the religious, civics and history studies. They are also obliged to learn Bahasa Indonesia.

“To facilitate the communication in the class room, both English and Indonesian teachers would tutor them, our Indonesian teacher also speaks English fluently, so these children would always be accompanied. Even all teachers of other studies also help to teach them the Indonesian,” he explained.

The Head of Jayapura Municipal Education Office I Wayan Mudiasyra said the presence of six students from PNG is the follow up of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia through the Ministry of Education, as well as the MoU between the Papua Provincial Papua and Sandaun Province, PNG.
“I think during the time they don’t have any obstacles, they can also read in Bahasa Indonesia, the point it they can adapt to their friends,” said Mudiasyra to Jubi at Aula Soan Sor.
He said the six students came to study at SMAN 3 because the school has dormitory and use the latest curriculum, namely curriculum 2013.

The Head of Papua Head Office Aloysius Giyai said 47 indicators were used to verify whether regencies deserved red, yellow or green marks for health services.

“For example, how to address the new cases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and some other diseases,” he told Jubi at his office on Saturday (13/8/2016).

He said the finding of diseases is an achievement because if more cases were found, it would be easier to administer treatment to prevent them from worsening.

For example, a patient infected of HIV could directly be given the ARV. Another appraisal is how many times the Health Office in the regions conduct the counseling about the benefit of KPS (Papua Health Insurance), the rights in accordance to the Governor Regulation No. 6/2014, what percentage of Special Autonomy Funds used for the regional health services and which ones who really conduct the health services up to 15 percent.

“We consider the regencies that did not make a report are bellow 15 percent,” he said.

The other indicator is also including the maternal and child health. How many women of the target set got the assistance from the medical staffs? The higher of rescue would get the higher rank. “There is a lot of factors that become a reference to determine a regency for getting a red mark, if so such regency must improve their health service in the future,” he said.

Jayapura City resident, Marinus Ulukyanan, said the assessment of the Papua Health Office is very positive. “It is not to strike down one region after another, but to encourage the regencies whose red mark to improve their health services,” he said. (*/rom)